The Gaseous Policies of Barack Obama
“They” Did It (Again)!
There are no “oil men” in the White House. So the Obamites cannot, as in the past, blame Halliburton, BP, or Exxon for rigging gas prices out of the Oval Office. Which leads to the question: why then are prices now climbing when the Bush-oil company connection is no longer the narrative? The new answer? “Wall Street” (e.g., the fat-cat bankers, corporate jet owners, those who don’t know when not to profit, etc.) raised prices.
But if true, who let them get away with that? The Chinese, who are scrounging every barrel they can on the world market? The Indians, who follow suit? Maybe it’s the Obama administration Treasury that has borrowed $5 trillion in three years, not only eroding the buying power of the world-traded dollar but also sending a message to oil producers that even more debt is coming and their petrodollars will only be worth less and less?
Or perhaps it is growing world tension, as in Iran, that caused the panic? But then who snubbed the Green revolution in Iran in the spring of 2009, sought “outreach” and “reset” with the theocracy, and leveled five serial demands to stop Iranian enrichment (or else!) to the point that Iran no doubt understood 2009-2012 was a once-in-a-lifetime exempt window of opportunity to get the bomb and to control the Gulf?
To paraphrase William Tecumseh Sherman, Obama might as well rail at the wind. The administration’s current panic mode arises because we are nearing $5 a gallon. (I just filled up two miles away in West Selma, with a supposed 21% unemployment rate and a per capita income of about $14,000, and the price today was $4.27.) It is only early March. Obama may blame Wall Street, but he is savvy enough to do the following calculus: by August, people will want to drive more than they do in March; the Chinese will suddenly not wish to buy less oil this summer; he has no federal leases that he approved in January 2009 that will be coming on line after three-and-a-half years; Volts will not be going into hyper-production mode; and prices will only go up just as the campaign and the weather heat up. There is about an hour’s worth of Obama administration past quotes on gas prices that should make some interesting campaign ads.
High Gas Prices Are Good Bad
So what exactly is the administration’s reaction to skyrocketing gas prices? That should be an absurd question — except that we know administration officials are either on record as indifferent to the high cost of gasoline, or in fact hoping for higher prices.
Consider also the cancellation of the Keystone pipeline; the restrictions of new federal oil leases in the West, Alaska, offshore, and in the Gulf; Obama’s prior promises that energy prices would skyrocket because of his efforts to enact cap and trade; his boast to help Brazil out by importing its new offshore oil finds; his worries only over the abrupt rate of gas increases in 2011 rather than his desire for gradual, steadier escalation; Energy Secretary Chu’s various statements that high prices were not such a concern and indeed that he wished to see gas reach European levels (e.g., $8-10 a gallon); Interior Secretary Salazar’s insistence that even $10 gas would not open up new federal oil lands; and on and on.
We are so badly in need of the adults taking charge of this country again.
CALLING ALL ADULTS!!!..It is our own fault that things are deteriorating in our great country. Only “we” can change it..if we step forward …which ..I really have my doubts about. Americans don’t pay attention until the bricks start falling on our heads..
I believe if conservatives do not fight hard this time, Obama will win reelection. There will be hell in the streets this summer with oWS etc..one year and we’ll be a socialists country to our very roots. Bread lines, FEMA camps?,sharia law, it’s all waiting for us..AND WE’RE PLAYING RIGHT INTO THE LEFTs PLAYBOOK…INTIMIDATION IS THEIR MAIN TOOL…AND WORDS THAT HOLD NO MEANING.
…I read we have plenty of oil, oil companies drilling and producing..AND THEN SELLING IT TO CHINA, INDIA….IT LEAVES HERE! What else can we expect? There has to be a way to keep some of this oil here!!! Why are we not concerned with this?? Quit yelling about more drilling…just keep some of the darned oil that the companies are producing here at home! If I’m wrong..explain why please..
Do not be lazy, however to start you on the road: if bread and milk in your town cost less than in surrounding towns you will have empty shelves because all folks from other towns will shop in yours quickly consuming all bread and milk supply… and people who sells bread and milk will jack up prices to capture extra profit. If New York state gov taxes gas more than New Jersey, all New Yorkers who can will buy gas in New Jersey… Need more? Read.
Anonymous probably understands that much, I bet. It is the whole ‘forcing’ American oil companies to keep their product here on the cheap that he is pining about. You know, why not force them?
Perhaps, it is just the frustration that, after liberals have stuffed their dirty underwear into every crevice, one may come to from the illusion that there is a of lack of practical, workable solutions. Or maybe he is a communist, fascist, whatever, and doesn’t know it.
In fact, it is the easiest solution. Force people to do what you want by the use of authority.
The US is no stranger to forcing oil to stay here. We were prohibited from exporting Alaska oil all through the ’80s and well into the ’90s. The communists on the Left Coast wouldn’t build any refineries, so they couldn’t take all our production. Consequently, we had to ship Alaska oil to Panama, tranship it to a pipeline, transfer it to another tanker and then try to sell it on the Gulf and East Coasts for NOTHING. You guys had a cheap oil boom, and we gave oil away and wondered how we’d pay our bills. We won’t do that again!
We were able to export a little in the ’90s rather than give it away but now our production is so low that it all goes to the Left Coast. But then, the communists in Seattle from time to time start talking about banning Alaska trade tankers from Puget Sound. What you guys have to understand is that it takes one Helluva lot of money and hassle to produce more oil. From Alaska’s perspective, 300,000bbl./dy. at $100/bbl. pays about the same as 1,000,000 bbl./dy. at $30/bbl. Why spend the money and kiss the US’s butt to get permission?
OK A, here goes. While it would be against free market priciples to force oil companies to keep supply here, just as asking them to make less profit is just not right. However, think it through, if more supply is just threatened or proposed, on its’ own merit the nasty speulators that are supposed to be ‘robbing’ everyone will be necessarily afraid they will then get burned, and quickly stop ‘betting with their considerable dollars” that prices will be going up, thus magically the price will begin to decline without one ounce of oil having necessarily been pumped. The so called ‘market’ operates on what it sees in the future, and if the alerts are that supply will begin to increase, viola’. Not to mention the increased employment by increased exploration and production, transport and on and on. So, get it? I am afraid POTUS does not have very good handle on economics, OR alternatively her does, but his agenda is much different that what many of us clearly see. I am a proponent of the latter, I think he will take joy in a larger more controlling government if he can manage to stealthily wreck our economy….this is a very bad guy we have in the White House.
Then, please sign the PETITION for the Obama Administration to resign:
https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/resign/SvJr4Q9h
You’re welcome.
They want you to register so they can send you requests for campaign contributions.
Or know where to send the brown-shirted jackboots when it’s time to round up all bitter clingers for the boxcars.
It is getting to the point where the.. “professors are running the show” thing, is getting to quite obviously be a failure. B*tchin article as usual Vic, keep it up.
Many will complain about prices at the gas pump. Few will make a strong, direct connection between high fuel prices and rising costs in every other part of their life.
Farming, food processing and product production will cost more. Transporting food and goods to market will cost more. Delivering onsite services will cost more. These cost increases will get passed along to consumers.
Businesses and families will cut back on non-essential trips, so those who rely on tourist dollars for survival can look forward to a lean year.
Gas does more than fuel our cars, it fuels our economy. Every uptick in gas prices leads to an across-the-board downtick in discretionary spending for families and businesses. If Barack gets his wish, $5/gal gas could tip this snail-paced recovery back into recession.
The price of gas is set internally using the US dollar as the benchmark. Obama’s profligate borrowing and spending has weakened the dollar, so the price of oil goes up. Like you said, that not only drives up the price of gasoline, diesel and jet fuel, it drives up the cost of just about everything else. Petroleum is also used to produce plastics, medicine and other things like asphalt. All of that will also cost more. Conveniently for Obama, the price of gas and food isn’t tracked in the Consumer Price Index. If it were, the inflation rate would be in the neighborhood of 8-10 percent.
In addition to his efforts that have weakened the dollar, the Obama administration has been obstructing exploration and production of US oil resources whereever possible. They have canceled oil leases on federal lands in at least 4 western states and offshore as well. The only reason why the news is so good out of North Dakota is that most of that oil drilling is happening on private or state property.
Great point, and one I believe very few people in America understand. Most find that counter intuitive, but oil tied to the dollar and a weakened dollar a actually increases the price of oil.
I wish more Americans understood that a weaker dollar affects supply by reducing production, regardless of whether oil is owned and produced by national or international oil companies.
The effect of Obama’s horrid fiscal policies are even more insidious to the average consumer than most citizens will ever understand.
Tex, unfortunately you’re right: “The effect of Obama’s horrid fiscal policies are even more insidious to the average consumer than most citizens will ever understand.”
We have food storage for our family and we buy bulk at sales etc We track the prices. We have found prices are up from 10% to 50% on most items. Now the “sale’ items are at the price they were regularly this time last year.
..Example.. a can of tomatoes at walmart..last year we paid $.94 a can, this year?..they are $1.28..same can, size, brand. Things are getting out of hand, and it’s creeping up ..soon people might begin to notice..maybe..
..Fuel prices are directly connected to prices on everyday goods…wake up !Obama is ruining our nation..
GRANTED~~ it didn’t start with him, but he has taken it full tilt and soon we may not be able to recover. PERHAPS THAT IS THE OBJECTIVE OF THE DEMOCRATS?
Larry, Anne – Excellent points.
Yes, isn’t it convenient that gas and food – two of the most volatile necessities – aren’t tracked as part of inflation?
we really need to know the “why” of this…and change it, no matter the “why”…people need to wake up..sometimes i feel like i’m yelling into the wind about these things. people complain…no one , no one, not one person in position to do, make changes…on the republican side stands up and says “enough”!!!
MY MAIN QUESTION SHOULD BE…Are they all in this together?, and we are the dumb pawns?
Food and fuel were taken out ostensibly because they were so volatile. I don’t remember just when it was done. In any event, the BLS CPI is so weighted to shelter costs that it hides a great deal of inflation in the other portions of the market basket. Unless you move into a new place every month, your personal shelter costs don’t change, yet when they survey in a stagnant or deflating housing market, the flat or deflating housing costs hide inflation in other costs.
Many state labor departments, the place that BLS data is gathered from mostly do a more representative sample of a real market basket but you often have to look hard to find it especially during Democrat administrations. Even in Republican states and non-union states, departments of labor or those that get federal funds from USDOL no matter what the state calls their program are OWNED by organized labor and they don’t allow no data to leak out that doesn’t reflect all good stuff on a Democrat federal administration. They also often wreak havoc on Republican state administrations by suddenly producing unflattering data.
Not positive, but I believe “volatile” indicators like food, gas, etc. were removed from the calculations during the hyper-inflation of the Carter era.
Cost of living had skyrocketed and an accurate inflation indicator that included the also-escalating essentials people bought daily would have been absolutely terrifying.
The solution? Jerry-rig the numbers and ignore the volatile items. That’s our government at work.
The government is required by law to raise programs like Social Security in line with the Consumer Price Index. Giving a 1% cost of living increase to SS recipients costs billions. Artificially measuring inflation saves them money.
So, since I’m a shareholder or subscriber to this Corporation, I’m paying one half of the company to slander the other half?
Can I get employees to degrade the whole company’s standing with any other companies I’ve invested in?
Is that the service I’m paying for?
We should all be very concerned that the same non-thinking voters’ claque which put this chameleon in the White House will be only more steadfast as the election draws nigh.
I’ve posted elsewhere using the example of the former Mayor of the District of Columbia, Marion Barry, who was re-elected even though his woman problems, drug problems, and genial, general laxness were so well publicized. They were only chuckled over by the District’s majority black voters.
Those goings-on make no difference, only enhance the urge among voters who’s only aim in life is to “…stick it to th’ man…”
Suspicions and an outcry concerning this Obama character should’ve been raised in earnest over that grossly premature Nobel……the Norwegians certainly took the lead in American Politics in that award….barely two weeks into O’s “administration”.
What does it take to knock us voters over the head to make us cherish this precious vote so many Servicemen and Women have died protecting?
What’s happening to our National Attention Span?
You are so right Charlie. Only half the country work for a living and the other half vote for a free ride. Not much chance of turning this travisty around. The Republicans have become Democrats and the Democrats have become Marxists. The good Dr. VDH writes and teaches for a living so it doesn’t matter which party wins for his continued success.
The good VDH is also a farmer…..a natural enemy of the State of Califonia.
This is their chance to show us How Wrong We Really Are
Take heart that the nation as a whole is a lot more diverse than DC when it comes to voters.
Eureka! I get to pay them to rob me- and you!
Now that’s some Noble Public Service right there!
Let the good times — and reparations — roll!
Amen! We’ll pay for it with Algae Windfall Taxes from our abundant algae reserves!
(Can any of you readers recall a civilization that in the past voluntarily chose not to exploit a valuable natural resource, when it could be done safely, without damage, and to great profit?)
Well, now, there never has been a fiat world reserve currency, either. So we’ve been exporting our inflation for a number of years, and are now about to see whether a silver-tongued devil of a President (#OccupyResoluteDesk, as I term him) can convince everyone to disbelieve their lying eyes for another four years.
What’s the over-under on the number of weeks into a 2nd BHO administration before he moves to scuttle the 22nd Amendment?
If the democrat party stays in control…we will no longer be a country in 4 years…
..I believe George 1 took the republicans balls away and put them in cold storage, ..if they don’t find them soon, we really are doomed..prepare the best you can.
if we do not fight back against liberals, we should all get fitted for a burka, brown shirt etc…because it will happen.
I don’t understand the lackadaisical attitude we have in this country. Jump on Rush because of his words..but give Obama a pass on his actions??? hello!>!>!
I am tired of supporting a political party that lays down and offers no resistance..
It’s not only voter apathy that that determines who governs in the US. The mainstream media Has chosen a side ( Liberal ) and have and no desire to report news truthfully,factually or objectively!!! It should be criminal. Like you I’m angry and frustrated with all the lunacy.
not to mention the complete throwing under the bus of Israel, once Jewish votes and Jewish money aren’t needed anymore.
2017, people. Obama will be president until 2017. that is just GRIM.
“So no worry: we have two Nobel Laureates in Dr. Chu and Barack Obama to see us through.”
To paraphrase the old joke, with geniuses like those, who needs nincompoops?
Oh Buck I wish I saw your post the other day when I was sitting around in a park talking to some friends about this whole energy mess and someone near by heard me call the good Dr. Chu a complete idiot. He walks over and says rather smugly “How can you can call a brilliant Nobel Prisze winning scientist an idiot? What qualifications do you have?” He then proceeded to lecture us about how highh ghas prices are good and the people in charge have our in the long run our best interest in mind. He scolded us all about the “the growing scourge of anti-intellectualism is America today”. Your line would have been a good comback!
, It is the idiots who put him there. They can’t tell you who controls Congress but they will give you every winner of American Idol. What happened to this Country. We are a country stuck on stupid.If the Moron in charge of America is Reelected. We are Finished.
of couch potato fools around, no doubt about it.
But the true morons are in the universities, presidents, provosts, deans, professors, idiots, dumb clucks, all.
Obama and Chu, however, not so dumb; they’re deliberately taking America down, and getting away with it.
Israel’s Channel 2 is reporting that the Israeli government has made the decision to attack the Iranian nuclear program. The question is no longer if, but when. Various pundits and analysts suggest anytime between the end of this month and September. The Iranian response will be three-fold: A) Attack Israel with ballistic missiles from Iran proper. B) Unleash Hezbollah in south Lebanon. And C) Attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The third front (Hormuz) will draw the US Navy into the conflict when the US is forced to defend the strait to keep the oil flowing. The problem for Obama is that even if the navy can keep the strait open, the cost of insuring super-tankers through a war zone will impact the price of crude. I suspect that when commodity traders get wind of this, we’ll see an initial spike in the price of oil followed by a series of jolts leading up to the outbreak of hostilities. When the bombs start falling it’s anyone’s guess how high the price of crude will soar. We stand on the brink of a crisis, folks. Prepare yourselves as best you can.
Tanker War 2.0 will probably play out much like 1.0 did. The Iranian navy will mainly act as a distraction while the real destruction is caused at night by raiders in Boghammers. (Has anyone done a recent estimate of Iran’s inventory of CS-801 “Silkworm” anti-ship missiles?)
The difference this time is, I’m not sure this President and SecState will care enough to send the USN in to settle matters. Unlike their predecessors, they like spiraling energy costs, which they will use to force us into their “green” nightmare scenario. To them, tankers going BOOM in the Strait could be defined as a feature, not a bug.
And I agree with you. Time to stock up.
clear ether
eon
You make a mistake in believing the president will have a choice. Europe and Asia are more dependent on gulf oil than the United States. And our gulf allies depend on the sale of oil to maintain control of their restive populations. We’re facing a global crisis in which the United States is the only power with the means to keep the oil flowing. The president’s green agenda is built on a fantasy. There is no substitute for gulf oil however much the greens want to wish it away. Reality has fangs. The president is soon to feel its bite.
But what if our President manque’s handlers have decided to abandon our traditional Arab allies in The Gulf region? Somebody put up the huge sums of money that the Soros cabal used to manipulate first oil prices and then almost collapse the US economy, and I’m betting they speak Arabic. The Saudis and the Gulf States may well have already performed the “great service” that will, at least for awhile, keep the radical Shites states from turning on them. The Iranians fresh off restoring British Persia to the Caliphate’s rule hold Europe’s oil hostage while they dispose of the Zionist Entity and neither we nor the Europeans lift a finger. The Sunni states make their separate peace with the Shia, the Turks return to the fold and it is 1582 all over again. They never forget and Spain is an economic basket case, so restoring Spain should be easy. The Balkans are a mess and I don’t know who would come to their aid, so that puts them back about where they were at the height of Ottoman power. Radicalization in the Stans isn’t far away and where would radicalized Moslems in the Stans turn? My money’s on India. China and India have already fought one war. The Great Game Redux. Wouldn’t it be ironic if Russia became the West’s bulwark? Most of Europe couldn’t defend itself if it wanted to, so they fall quickly into dhimmitude, don’t think there are any of Charles Martel’s genes left in France. There’s no Churchill to say, “We will never surrender.” Venezuela with a nuclear armed friend and a huge chunk of the US’ oil supply can easily establish hegemony over South and Central America. Brazil folds without US support and just joins the Caliphate’s Oil Club. Mexico is a revolution waiting for an excuse. Then it is the mortal remains of the Anglosphere “Alone.” Seem to recall a book by that name. Some crusty, crazy old English guy wrote it, part of a series as I recall.
I know I’m paranoid; I just wonder if I’m paranoid enough.
Art: how about a modified scenario?
Israel, Saudi Arabia and India work in concert to strangle the Iranian and Paki nuclear threats before they break out. There are those that believe the Israelis have already gotten approval from Saudi for overflight to and from Iran. More collaboration has been rumored. The Gulf States that are little more than collateral damage to an Iranian breakout can see the writing on the wall and will fall in line with Saudi and Israel. Doesn’t matter what the Turks do, as Erdogan’s rolling Islamist takeover of Turkey is rapidly killing its economy. His Islamist garbage is tolerated as long as the economy is good. It isn’t any more. They very well may be tossed out shortly after the Optometrist in Damascus is gone.
Israel is not going anywhere. Either are the Indians. And the Saudis want to live for at least a few years more to enjoy their oil dollars before that spigot is turned off. Cheers -
I had a reply to the always brilliant eon, now I’d like to reply to the glorious Art Chance. Forgive me confusion in the order entry.
Art Chance, absolutely. The Great Game is bringing us the reformation of the Caliphate, with a new Communist Axis replacing the Anglosphere. The borders of the Caliphate, from Maghreb North and Luo East Africa, to Andalus Spain, to Byzant Bosnia, to Mughal India, are almost complete.
The WWII Saudis have been replaced by the Rebel 6, who are lifting up the Shia oil areas of Arabia and colluding with Iran. Shia and Sunni co-operate more often than they fight, the great rift between them is another Leftist media invention.
The Rebels and our Demmunists blamed an innocent patriot, Osama bin Laden, for the act of their Ikhwan (Brotherhood) agents on 911; this is why a Democrat assassinated him (and eliminated the Seal team), when a Republican would not. Demmunist allies in State running Iraq like their Vietnam money machine, false intel and JAG lawyers keeping the biznis going, etc. Always make hay blaming the wrong guy to cover one’s own crime.
Bush still managed to ship 500,000 tons of the ‘nonexistent’ yellowcake to Canada, spies like Valerie Plame notwithstanding. He just kept his mouth shut and did his job, kudos for that.
The new Saudi rulers have poured money into Bosnia, destroying the frescoes of the oldest, largest mosque in Europe.
Russia and Eastern Europe are the ones who fought these guys off the last time- thank Vlad the Impaler, in part, for terrorizing the much larger Seljuk force (how Vlad got his rep). Soon the Russian military will be majority Muslim, if it is not already. So much easier to fight, preach, and enlslave the builders than to actually build- it’s the Muslim way, they just rename their slaves with Muslim names, burn the library, and rewrite a false history.
Kashmir is the price for Chinese cooperation- the Mughal Empire of western India is being re-formed first. Last week Iran, Pakistan (Taliban too, Omar is a Paki puppet governor), and Afghanistan had a conference in Tehran; the Koran burning incident happened immediately after (an op by ISI plants), giving Dear Leader his excuse to pull our forces out early. Afghanistan is rich in yellowcake, the bad half of the ISI is probably working with Iran while they milk us for funding.
South America is being taken over by a coalition of Marxists and Muslims; the same thing happened in Africa at ‘Independence’, which was just a campaign to drive out the West. Obama’s grandad was a member of the Marxist Mau Mau, for instance; Mandela bombing schoolchildren has been replaced by mad Mbeki and truly insane Zumi, Mugabe was a Muslim Marxist, Bashar of Sudan too, many, many examples. Idi, Mobutu, Nyere, Kinyatta all invested in Democrat NY/Jersey, etc.
South America has Cuba/Hezbollah running Zetas in Mexico (along with 400,000 Lebanese/Palestinians in Monterrey alone), Hezbollah missle facilities in Venezuela, the largest Hamas training base in Triborders smuggler capital at south Brazil, along with the new Communistas propped up by our govt in Argentina, Bolivia, and more. (Like the Demmunistas did in the 70s/80s).
The Communist Axis (American Demmunistas included) and the Caliphate see the wealth of the glittering West- wealth they could never build. They simply need to recruit the Southern hemisphere (people who never even invented an alphabet) to help them come and take it from the aging, shrinking populations of the west.
Westerners vs. Resterners. Too bad they have so many opportunist allies here- but now that Demmunistas have seized control of our currency and our military, who is to stop this new wave washing over the world?
@agimarc – I’m just not as optimistic as you; they’re all Muslims first and they hate us infidels first – that dictates everything they do, even the fabulously rich and somewhat Westernized Saudis.
We are Constantinople, and they want it. It took them almost 800 years but they got it. Hell, only 2/3rds of the World’s wealth resided in the Byzantine Empire; pretty much everything that is worth a damn in the whole World is in the US, Europe, and the mortal remains of the British Empire.
Oh, I’m doing a training session for Republican candidates at the Convention.
That ought to be scary, huh? Saul Alinsky 101 for the Rotary Club.
@alzaebo – The US has really only faced one implacable foe; itself in the Civil War. We once had it in us, don’t know if we still do especially since we have so many people in this Country who either don’t accept, don’t know, or reject our heritage. It really isn’t about Islam or Communism, it is the same dynamic as the glitter of Constantinople; there really isn’t any difference between the Mohammedans coming out of the desert barbarity and the OWSers; they want the World, they want it now, and they don’t want to work or pay for it.
art–you had me at “president manque.” fantastic.
to your point about the rising caliphate: heck, I say let’em have Spain! Europe is lost anyway. maybe it will serve as a cautionary tale for us before we allow our country to fall. anyway, Spain is one of the most anti-Semitic countries in Europe; it would serve them right to live under Sharia law for awhile.
“they like spiraling energy costs, which they will use to force us into their “green” nightmare scenario.”
That anwers my question- thank you!
The left has added Tier 1 banking to their arsenal of media, law, education, and agency bureaucracy.
I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how they profit from a spike setup, as opposed to the usual Deep Capture short setup (govt/mafia collaboration on manipulating flash crashes).
Let’s remember that most politico’s and sovereigns are heavily into derivatives manipulation. That way they can claim a small footprint in the actual stock. They are in the short-term options instead. Family members usually control the blind trusts; many of the tax-evasion trust vehicles give the politico 100% control of his money while avoiding taxes and liablity.
An example would be a CRUT- charitible remainder unit trust- celebrities can ‘donate’ on paper and recieve the benefits for 40 years until their death, when the trust principle is remaindered to the charity. OJ Simpson had a similar trust in his kids name in Lloyds London, the Clintons have multiple Carribean trusts (such as the Chelsea Jefferson trust).
These politoco’s money washes form the majority of the ‘dark pools’ (anonymous exchanges) that are also used by Cartels, rogue generalissimo’s, and soverign wealth funds. Politicos don’t have to be in active service; that’s just a rung on the ladder. The revolving door of lobbying, advisory, uni, PR, and interlocking memberships on multiple corporate boards extend the political life far and wide. The Industry is a cartel that operates far beyond borders and thus, accountability or transparency.
Back to the original question.
I just wanted to give the readers a taste of the magnitude of the nascent post-national structure that is forming.
How does a spike benefit these manipulators?
By forcing us into the largest industrial sector in the world-
publicly financed infrastructure.
They force us into contracts of their choosing.
That is a LOT of favors they can call in.
(BIF controls about a third of the world’s contract writing, you can buy it as an overseas stock.)
“I’ve been wracking my brain trying to figure out how they profit from a spike setup..”
Keep in mind that capitalism defines profit in monetary terms, while socialism defines it in terms of political power. This is why socialists are perfectly willing to collapse a country’s economy (by any means from inflationary policies to strikes, sabotage, etc.), if they think they can gain power in doing so.
Obama & Co.’s definition of “profit” is how much power they can grab, period. And if that takes wrecking the U.S. economy, they’re all for it, as they disapprove of said economy on general principles. (cf. GM, TARP, etc.) The poorer everyone else is, the more control they have, and the greater the profit, in their minds. “For the common good”, of course.
(Me? “brilliant?” Aw, shucks. ;-))
cheers
eon
Best. Analysis. Ever.
The Core of the difference
Mortgage your house (if you can) and fill up your gas tank before the lines form….
I, like many believe that Obama is hostile to the USA. His wife once admitted it. His pastor admitted it. His mentor Frank Davis admitted it. His buddy Bill Ayres admitted it. If he had, he wouldn’t have been able to be in a position to actually put that hostility into action and degrade the country.
I just can’t figure out why the media supports this. Don’t they have children and grandchildren that would benefit from the capitalistic patriotic belief? Didn’t many of them come from modest homes and now are rich?
How long will majorities give the president the benefit of the doubt and not trust their own reasoning and logic. What am I missing?
The members of the media are cut from the same cloth. They have read the same things, listened to the same people and believe in the same causes as Barack Obama does. As for worrying about their children and grandchildren, I’d be willing to bet that many of them are childless and the rest see their offspring as the future elite who’ll be in charge of our economy. Capitalism rewards hard work, clear thinking and risk-taking- cronyism rewards one’s connections. Their kids will have the latter, and therefore, don’t need any of the former.
You’re right. They all suffer from the delusion that they and their children will be part of the ruling elite. However, they are wrong. Remember Lenin’s “useful idiots”? There are only so many slots at the top and when Obama and his crew have wrung all the help they can out of the liberal media and other supporters, they will get rid of their own “useful idiots.”
Those “useful idiots” will be standing in queues to get into grocery stores that have no food on the shelves just like the rest of us. The world they helped to create won’t look like utopia at that point.
Remember this?
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/new_yorker_obama_terrorist_cover_/
I think the Administration’s tone-deaf response to the outcry over a crisis of their own making won’t be overlooked by Americans come this November. That’s the silver lining in all of this. Just in case the voters don’t make the link between the Keystone XL impasse and higher gas prices, the Republican nominee will be more than happy to do it for them- repeatedly.
As for tapping into the strategic oil reserves, most people would see that as major hypocrisy. Obama can try to deflect blame for gas prices all he wants, but he has made alternative energy and a decreased emphasis on fossil fuels a center point of his campaign and Presidency. There will be no running from it this election, and the Republicans will not let him.
“There will be no running from it this election, and the Republicans will not let him.”
You may be correct and I hope you are. But if we are to get to that point in the national debate it seems that we a very, very, long way to go. Right now the entire Republican message seems to be ensnarled totally in the issue of whether or not Ms. Fluke should have the protections needed to supplement her apparently robust sex life paid for by everyone else. And the media’s most pressing question of the day is “What do you think of Rush Limbaugh’s insulting remarks?”. To get past that level of dimwitted discourse to the important issues that you suggest seems like a daunting task. I have several NEA affiliated retired schoolteacher friends and neighbors. Gas could go to $10 per gallon and the “Vote For Obama” signs will still sprout like dandelions in their yards late this summer. That’s the “thinking” that we are up against.
Well, Romney at least has stayed fairly far out of that whole mess. He’s been focusing on the economy and if he stays on message I think it will work out. I realize that the media frenzy about Limbaugh is partly to tarnish every Republican with guilt by association, but to the average person I think Limbaugh seems so far out there that that particular tactic may not work. At least, I hope not.
“but to the average person I think Limbaugh seems so far out there that that particular tactic may not work.”
To some, maybe. Hopefully, it’s the Democrats, crackpots like Pelosi, and the liberal MSM that will seem “so far out there” that the tactic will blow up in their faces. I think that may well be happening. If so, let’s pray that it continues.
Yooper;
Have you seen the amount of supporters Ron Paul has? These are the people that are too stupid to be admitted to the Democrat Party caucuses.
Go to your nearest WalMart and look around. They’re really out there!
It’s actually worse than the most degenerate TV program.
What should be remembered is that this country HAD oilmen in the White House for many years (both Bushes and their cronies) and they did NOTHING to extricate this country from the madhouse known as the Middle East. Why? Because there was too much money to be made off of their past investments in Saudi and Kuwaiti oil fields. In fact, so much money that they sucked us into two wars just to keep the oil flowing over there, rather than fight the fight to start drilling over here. How much blood and treasure have the rest of us lost because of Republican idiocy concerning energy policy. And this sort of idiocy, witnessed over many years by all, is why the monster Hussein is now in the White House. Make no mistake about all this!
Your assumption that American oilmen sold out the USA may not be true. The EPA and Democratic supporters have had a stranglehold on energy development for a long time. Only now, the outgrowth of those two latter groups, the president is giving opposition to drilling executive authority.
No, oil policy went into the dumper thanks to Nixon and Carter. Nixon “suggested” that the Shah of Iran raise oil prices to pay for US military supplies. Carter blundered in his opposition to the Shah and let a maniac take over Iran. The Saudi’s went along to get along. Thanks to the progressives war on the environment no new refining was built and nuclear was classified as a no go.
Leftist/environmentalist opposition to US oil development goes back at least to the beginnings of the “New Left” in the late ’60s. Democrat opposition to Alaska development caused the US to curtail all Alaska land selection under the Alaska Statehood Act in 1966. When Prudhoe Bay was discovered in ’68, opposition was immediate both from “environmentalists” and though leftist proxies in the Native American sovereignty groups. Authorization for construction of the TransAlaska Pipeline System (TAPS) passed the Democrat-controlled Senate only by the vote of Vice-President Agnew in ’73. Opponenents continued to obstruct constrution until the Arab Oil Embargo made additional US production imperative and the Pipeline authorization act removing legal obstacles and granting a right of way over federal lands was passed in January 1974. (Your humble correspondent was in a tourism dependent business in Atlanta in those days and having seen his income drop by half in recent months began making plans to go “North to the Future” that spring.)
I wasn’t paying enough attention back then and really don’t know international finance well enough to offer anything authoritative but whatever happened with Khadaffi’s nationalization of the Libyan fields produced some sort of sea change in oil economics and many refer to Nixon’s having taken the US off the gold standard at that time as the US having adopted a petrodollar standard. That is intriguing since the US at that time was much more energy independent than now and made little if any use of mideast oil; we still don’t. The intrigue increases when one observes how the US, GB, and Norway used the large size and dramatic uplift rates from the newly developed North Slope and North Sea provinces to destroy the OPEC price paradigm in the mid-’80s, an action that kept World prices quite low until 2003. During the early to mid-’80s, Alaska’s North Slope fields were producing as much as 25% of all US consumption. Unfortunately for us, the price was never out of the teens for most of the period and at times was at or below the economic viability floor of the Pipeline. Additionally, there never was enough West Coast refinery capacity to accept all of Alaska’s production so much of our oil had to be shipped to Panama, transhipped through a pipeline, reloaded on tankers and shopped on the Gulf and East Coasts by which time transportation costs ate all our income from the oil that we were prohibited from exporting. We learned from that; you had a boom and we wondered how we were going to cover the State’s checks. These days, we’d just as soon sell 300,000 bbl./dy. at $100/bbl. as 900,000bbl./dy. at $30, and we don’t much care what you pay for gas down there. We stay on the World price for domestic use here just because we don’t want to hear you whine and have Waxman and the other CA communists start hearings and such, but we don’t have to; we take 12.5% of the oil in kind as royalty and we can sell it to Alaska refiners for whatever we want and price the gas, diesel, and heating oil wherever we choose.
Art, you’ve got your s**t dead straight. Let’s give Mittens some talking points to straighten the historical record.
“If you like $5 gas and 50¢/kWh electricity, vote for O and the DemO’s!”
Thank you for the kind words. I lived a few months at nearly $0.50/kwh. When I lived in Juneau, an avalanche wiped out the transmission line from the hydro plant and we went on diesel generated electricity like a bush village. Juneau was used to an urban lifestyle with high consumption of cheap electricity. It was mid-winter and dark all the time to make it worse. The stores immediately ran out of clothespins, clothesline, kerosene and kerosene lamps. The town got really dark as outside lights were turned off, streetlights went off, people turned off unneeded lights. We had always used a clothesline when the weather was good so we had clothespins and used the outside line to set up a clothesline in the garage. We heated with oil, so that didn’t take much electricity. Anyway, we got our consumption down by two-thirds without real inconvenience but you had to think about it ALL the time. They were thinking it might go on for as long as six months, but they got a temporary fix together in a little less than three months; sure was nice to use the dryer again! Electricity at those prices requires a dramatic change in lifestyle or one Helluva lot of money. Our typical winter bill had been around $100 at $0.115/kwh; we’re not poor, but taking that to $500/mth., would have made a significant impact on us and I don’t know how moderate income people would have handled it for long. Of course, no impact on the looters and moochers, somebody else was paying their electric bill.
who was it that voted against new drilling in Alasks 11 years ago? wasn’t the republicans? or lifting the moratorium on drilling in the gulf? wan’t the republicans.
ANWR development passed both bodies of Congress under Republicans but was vetoed by Comrade Clinton.
In 2003 a provision to open ANWA to drilling was removed from the budget by a vote of 52 to 48, along party lines. But eight Republicans joined Dems to vote yes: Chafea, Coleman, Snow, Gordon Smith, DeWine, Fitzgerald and the maverick, John McCain.
I wish all you “true conservatives” could put as much energy into hating Democrats as you do into hating Republicans.
Almost all foreign owned oilfield infrastructure in the Middle East was long ago nationalized, a nice way of saying confiscated, by the various governments. Private oil companies, e.g., Exxon, BP, and oilfield service companies, e.g, Haliburton, do some contract work and provide labor and expertise because the Arabs are generally too rich or lazy to be bothered with work. The dirty little secret is that just about all of the private development of oil is in the Anglosphere, the rest is government production “companies” developing government controlled provinces and leases.
I hate them both just fine, Art. I especially hate the Dems who masquerade as Repubs… which means most of the Repubs.
Loved your comments about the oil development in AK and the pricing.
” I especially hate the Dems who masquerade as Repubs… which means most of the Repubs.”
When you guys say stuff like that I can only conclude that you just don’t deal with Democrat appratchiks and officeholders. Some of the Republicans may not be as conservative as some would want but they do have to get elected in places other than the rural South and Intermountain West. Gerrymandering and the VRA has made Democrat seats so safe that most of them are outright communists, nutjobs, or both; only the ones that have to run for statewide offices are even remotely sane. Democrats can’t lie because they believe that whatever falls out of their self-serving nasty mouths is true. You can’t even hold them to a written deal. Unfortunately, most Republicans come up through the Chamber, the Rotary, some trade association, or out of business so we have the “be nice” thing down and the Left capitalizes on it by insisting, Alinsky – style, that we live to our own nice standard, e.g., the Slut affair. We just don’t put people up for office who have any idea how to deal with an agressive, confrontational Democrat. Rush has caught as much Hell from Republicans as from Democrats and we can’t wait to toss our own under the bus when they get accused of something by a lefty, see, e.g., the late Sen. Ted Stevens.
The old fashioned Democrat who came up in the community, did business there, etc. was pushed out of the Party by the ’80s. Now anybody in a leadership or officeholder position is a special interest lawyer, a former union rep, or former Democrat operative in a government. They are nasty, dishonest people to the core and only some of them can even put lipstick on the pig and pass themselves off as members of the human race when they’re in a mixed crowd. I knew what that communist SOB the idiots of America elected was the second I laid eyes on him; I’ve dealt with union reps just like him since the late ’80s. When I saw him give that speech to the convention, I remember thinking, “So you’re the one they think they can dress up and pass for a human being.”
There are all too many “born again Republicans” who glommed on to the “R” label after ’94 and who see politics as a zero sum game. They’re easy to dislike and distrust but I’ve never met one that was even in the same league as the typical Democrat apparatchik or officeholder.
AC That is one of most accurate descriptions of A Democrat I have ever Heard! They are the lowest form of Life on this planet..we can deal with a thief, we cannot deal with a liar/Traitor, thanks for Making my Day..Semper Fi
“There are all too many “born again Republicans” who glommed on to the “R” label after ’94 and who see politics as a zero sum game.”
Saw that in the Ohio House when I worked there. Suddenly a few dems from the Cleveland area found their inner Republican and switched parties. Rank opportunists with the ego to match. The worst dems to work with were always the lawyers who represented the unions. Thugs in suits.
“The worst dems to work with were always the lawyers who represented the unions. Thugs in suits.”
There’s a special place in Hell for union lawyers. AFSCME likes to hire lawyers as business agents and then try to claim attorney-client privilege for their BAs. I fired a guy for refusing to cooperate in an administrative investigation on his lawyer/BA’s advice, made it stick all the way through arbitration. That was one stupid move over the line and the union fired him. He finds the guy we fired that he’s represented and they sued the union claiming the union hadn’t adequately trained him and he didn’t know the ee didn’t have the right to refuse to “incriminate” himself in an administrative investigation. They got a $50K settlement out of the union over it, but both of them stayed fired.
It did cause me to start hiring young lawyers rather than lay people who’d worked up through HR, my usual path. You just couldn’t train the lay people up quickly enough to be able to deal with all the crazy objections and legalese the lawyers tried to throw up. I hated them though I made some union private attornies rich. My people got paid every two weeks whether they did anything or not; that lawyer was billing the union on hours, and we just loved to help them churn stupid motions and play discovery games. A discovery request or a subpoeana duces tecum that will cost tens of thousands of dollars to comply with may make a private individual or even a company think twice; a government doesn’t even blink, and we would grind them to dust financially. We had our AFSCME local broke and racked stacked for decertification after the ’94 General Election, but they bought themselves a Democrat governor who saved them. Did I mention that I hated them?
“..that lawyer was billing the union on hours, and we just loved to help them churn stupid motions and play discovery games.”
Heh. I like.
There was a rep from the Dayton area— former union lawyer who used to hire private detectives to dig up dirt on anyone challenging him for his seat. Two weeks before the election he would begin attacking his opponents with the personal dirt and his opponents spent the whole time defending themselves…and not talking about the issues. He did that on three occassions I’m aware of and basically scared anyone away from taking him on.
The antidote to that is not giving them any dirt to find. I lived the last 15 years or so of my career in the certain knowlege that anything untoward that I did was going to be in my boss’s ear immediately and after I got married in my wife’s ear too, and if I didn’t do anything they’d just make it up. I’ve had them engage waitstaff to spy on me, get women to try to troll me out of bars, drop a dime to the cops if they’d seen me drinking (I didn’t dare drive home after even a glass of wine with dinner.). I’ll admit that I wasn’t a saint, but I was a very careful sinner and they never got me, though not for lack of trying.
For the life of me I can’t understand why Art Chance isn’t one of the article writers for PJM. The level of detail and actual experience is amazing. I’ve never heard anything close.
He’s like Papecu- he’s seen the Soviet Sanctus Sanctorum, the inner circle.
@alzeabo – Thank you for the kind words!
If you have $10 bucks you’re willing to part with, you might enjoy this: http://www.amazon.com/Red-Blue-Establishing-Republican-ebook/dp/B005M784HW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1331162323&sr=8-1
It’s in Kindle, but if you don’t have one Amazon has free downloads for readers for most any computer, pad, or smart phone.
“The antidote to that is not giving them any dirt to find.”
True, but they can create a lie that sounds plausible by cherry picked facts of your past. Having accusations thrown at you sourced too an old girlfriend or business partner throw people and there is little time to get the facts straight before the voters go to the polls.
At a rural level, dropping rumors at church or favorite watering holes around election time is effective as well.
Yeah, I’ve never held elected office but I have no illusions about how ignorant, emotional, and fickle the electorate is. I had the dual advantage of having come up through the bureaucracy and having a well established reputation for drinking and whoring back in my single days. Later on when I was married and an appointee, if some rumor came around, I was just living down to my reputation. You do have to have a good wife and a trusting boss, though; well it works to have something on your boss, too.
Dear readers, I’m reviewing Art Chance’s book now.
It’s like a dream come true.
Waving Federalist Paper #10 at these communist criminals means NOTHING to them; spouting about Bibles and Flags and Principles and abstract bulleskinyetta is worthless.
I’ve been following Art Chance’s comments with great interest because he is the first insiders to describe the working MECHANICS of the actual Industry.
I’ve daydreamed that he would have a pamphlet or guide or articles-
here is an easily digested book of just 182 pages on How It Is Done.
Winning and Staying, in the face of an organized crime cartel.
How to reverse the tide- please let us mail this, or a digest of it, to every precinct captain, officeholder, apparatchnik, campaign worker we can find.
This is the Manual to counter Russian spy Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals.
OMG. What are you waiting for?!?
@alzaebo – Thank you for the very kind words! I’m thinking of a second edition with some separate chapters on defending your Republican government from federal attack; even I underestimated the malevolence of Obama Junta.
As bad as gasoline prices get, it is the price of diesel fuel that should concern us.
We automobile drivers can temper our use of gasoline to suit our budget – telecommute, mass transit, stay at home and watch TV, etc.
We cannot avoid the effects of high diesel prices. Nothing comes to market without its expenditure. Farm tractors run on diesel, combines run on diesel, locomotives run on diesel, over-the-road trucks run on diesel – the gasoline that you’re trying to avoid paying more for is carried to the gas station by consumption of diesel.
And that will wreak havoc on our economy far more than a gallon of gasoline at $5.00 per gallon.
This has been Obama’s plan from the start. It is his goal to drive this economy into the dust. Any fair review of his statements prior to his 2008 election show him to be every bit the devote of Alinsky, Cloward and Piven that he is showing himself to be today.
Given his success versus the goals that he laid out for himself prior to his election, he is succeeding beyond his wildest dreams.
We had best be rid of this man – he is killing this Republic.
You are right about diesel. It also effects home heating prices as diesel and home heating oil are the same. Many in rural America heat with oil. Meantime the price of firewood is going through the roof at the same time the government restricts access to Federal and State forests. When the oil man shows up and it costs $1,000 to fill your tank, you wonder “What don’t I pay this next 3 months?”. In Washington, they also charge sales tax on heating oil. Gov’t likes the increases in revenue as the tax is close to 9% of the retail price.
I can assure you that it has been a number of years since our heating fuel tank was filled. Heating fuel has been over $3 a gallon (and rising) since the 2009 heating season. With temps of 20 below the norm for January and February most years, it’s expensive to not freeze to death. 20 years ago, the rural midwest turned to heating fuel as a household economy move, but like the man said, he is indeed fundamentally transforming America.
This has been Obama’s plan from the start. It is his goal to drive this economy into the dust. Any fair review of his statements prior to his 2008 election show him to be every bit the devote of Alinsky, Cloward and Piven that he is showing himself to be today.
Yea but you cannot get a Progressive liberal to understand WHY Obama being all of those things wrapped into one is a very bad thing for this country.
How do we show him and his ilk for what they really are, how do we educate the same “masses” that the progressive snakes have bitten?
On the 176th anniversary of the fall of the Alamo be reminded of what occurred during the 13 days they held out. The Texans met at Washington on the Brazos and declared Independence, Sam Houston consolidated his small army and formulated a plan of strategic retreat leading Santa Ana to the Jacinto marsh. We are currently under siege, not only gas prices but Wisconsin, Federal Reserve Policy, and even Limbaugh. These people will be defeated, be patient but be resolute.
Thank you Dr. Hanson. A little levity and sense of the absurd makes it go down a little easier out here in the asylum.
The scariest people are the Obamites, those who worshipped him as their god,they have become more and more fanatic in defending the politicies of their communist leader. The streets of America will run blood when the OWS brown shirts get their marching orders from the Obama/Pelosi supreme soviet. CWII has already begun.We are already in the beginnng of this new not so civil war and the tactics of using a dedicated left wing feminists at Georgetown to distract us is not working. O tempora O mores
Ditto.
If we cannot rid America of this pestilence, we will have lost America. If Obama is re-elected, there will be no turning back.
Not to worry. The president and the 99% crowd have our backs. LOL!!
The Administration is aware of the problem with gasoline prices. My theory is that their focus groups tell them that enough people to comprise a majority would rather get laid than anything else. That and free goodies. Thus, they frame the narrative to depict Republicans as relentless puritanical wowsers who would do anything to keep those things from happening. It’s the old stage magician’s trick of misdirected attention.
it also shows the “focus” for obamanation’s attention – the “fool some of the people all of the time” crowd
Obama doesn’t really care about the high price of fuel. He always has a slick (free) ride waiting for him. (Visit Capitol Hill someday and you will see the flotilla of
SUVs -motors running – waiting to haul the members of Congress a block or two to their offices.) He doesn’t care about public education. His kids go to one of the finest private schools in Washington. And he doesn’t give a rap about government takeover of health care. He has a swell private plan that all the special people on Capitol Hill enjoy. Social Security? No problem. Golden parachutes all around for folks in the White House and Congress. An elite ruling class is taking over – special rules and perks for themselves, the table scraps for the rest of us.
Get the picture?
Sandra: You got it right!
Ha, drive the Beltway and see all the hot blondes in tiny red skirts driving an open-top Corvette with Congressional plates. Love those young interns. They’re probably the only females in the Capitol who are ‘interested in men’.
Chu and Obama are both men who have rarely if ever had to personally function in the realm of pure practicality,
They are convinced of the soundness and superiority of their own ideological vision. Dragging a kicking and screaming unenlightened population into their enlightened world is how they view their green agenda.
Spain’s green economy tanking didn’t faze them. A fast excuse, the gloss over, is always at the ready…
“We’ll do it smarter than Spain”
The fact that millions upon millions in taxpayer cash is down the drain on Solyndras and Volts doesn’t seem to bother them one whit on their march to ideological purity.
Both men should be forced to personally compensate the taxpayer for all their serial boondoggles.
At least we won’t have a repeat of the gasoline lines of the 70′s. Now it’s the money that’s scarce, not the gasoline. Naturally government interventions caused both – in the 70′s the gasoline shortages resulted from price controls, in the 00′s the Fed weakened the dollar. At the root of every problem you’ll find a government bureaucrat, if only there were a way to reduce the number of government bureaucrats…
…if only there were a way to reduce the number of government bureaucrats…
The size of the federal bureaucracy has increased something like 20% under Obama. And he has taken to giving drippy speeches about how important they and their jobs are.
Federal bureaucrats themselves have recently claimed that their jobs are more complicated and difficult than those of the average joe blow in the private sector.
Shirley Sherrod (formerly of Agriculture/Breitbart fame) has recommended to her constituents that they seek jobs in the federal bureaucracy, the benefits and the salary are fantastic and it’s damn near impossible for them to fire you once you’ve established your incredible value as a writer of regulations and memorandums.
Obamacrats and Holdercrats are the new 4th branch of government
Arab nationalization of the oilfields followed by the Arab oil embargo after the Yom Kippur War caused the dramatic increases in oil prices. Price controls were Nixon’s attempt to hold down the resulting inflation. Today fifty cents per gallon seems really, really cheap, but it isn’t when it represents a 50% increase and in much of the Country $2.50 – $3.00/hr. was still pretty good wages. I was taking a $150/wk. draw from my business most weeks and living in a fancy townhouse in a gated complex, pool, clubhouse, driving a new car, sending my kid to private school and generally living high on the pig in ’73. That all started to change with the oil embargo and business just died. I decided ’74 was a good time to move to Alaska.
Sorry, Art. Not buying that. Minimum wage in that time period was $1.60/hr. That’s $64/wk. 2-3 times that was not the exceptional living you described. I remember $4-5/hr was pretty common, though, which is what you were making ($175/wk).
Perhaps you are thinking of some years earlier?
But yes, gas was 30-ish cents per gal. Until the ugly oil embargo and the long lines and rationing. Every other day sort of filling up. Getting in line at 4AM. 4 hours in line, only to have no gas when you got there. Running out of gas while in line. Having to be pushed.
Funny, imagine such things, today, in our entitled society. People would go ballistic. They would absolutely be unable to handle it. We need some film of these things to remind folks.
Townhouse complex in N.E. Atlanta off LaVista and I-85, good neighborhood in those days, for $250/mt. I bought a new Toyota LandCruiser FJ-40 in the spring of ’74 for a little over $4K, think the payments were maybe $160/mth. I was paying my help, mostly college kids, $1.75 – $2.00/hr. Sold out in ATL, rattled around the Country camping, ocassionally getting a hotel room, with wife, kid, and dog. Sold the handguns that had been essential in ATL and bought a Ruger 30.06 in Seattle, think I paid about $150 for it, didn’t own another handgun for almost twenty years I was so sick of having to carry all the time in downtown ATL. Wound up in Anchorage in September of ’74; the rest is history.
…in the pre-Climategate days before Al Gore was a “sex poodle” and when the Himalayan glaciers were to be swamps and polar bears extinct
The masseuse (she really was there just to give a massage) who was assaulted by the Goracle in his hotel room described him as a crazed sex poodle.
Accuracy R Us :)
YOu got a clue of this when he grabed his wife and kissed her so hard in front of the world, you knew it was all for show! I wish she had smacked him a good one.
grabbed! Wasn’t the Wolf woman his advisor and had him wear tight, tight pants and take viagra so that he looked manly! Brother!
“Does Obama realize that even an extra 3 to 4 million barrels a day produced here would earn the U.S. billions in extra revenue and help to stabilize world prices by taking a commensurate amount of American demand off the world market?”
Not to mention reduce our trade deficit and strengthen the dollar, pushing back against Bernanke’s currency-inflating “easing”. Refining, shipping, etc. means more jobs for US workers. Who cares where the product is ultimately sold as long as the checks clear the bank?
“The financiers of Solyndra and other failed subsidized firms are somehow exempt from the sorts of invective leveled at those who produce oil, as if we like those who lose our money and end up producing nothing but despise those who make a profit, pay taxes, and get us to work in the morning.”
Not to mention giving us the work to get to!
We face an unclear decision. If a leader intentionally raises the cost of a basic life sustaining commodity, it has the exact same economic effect as universally raising taxes. Death and taxes are the only certainties in life, and if you can not afford the basics, you die. When very smart leaders spout nonsensical flim flam, I can only conclude that they fib.
I did not vote for Obama because of his energy policies, and lack of experience. He is worse than I had guessed. He has wasted billions on technologies which would not see the light of day if left to a free market, and destroyed technologies which support our advanced way of life. It is as certain as the sun rising in the east that his policies will economically destroy our nation. The green energies will result in societal collapse.
My uncertainty is that the Republicans have done nothing meaningful, on a survival energy policy, for two generations. OPEC closed perhaps two dozen valves in 1973, and the price of crude oil shot up from $2 to $30. The most useful response was Jimmy Carter’s advice to wear a sweater.
Government regulators have frozen new American energy infrastructure, for carbon combustion, and nuclear fusion, for two generations. There has been a 36 year gap since the last nuclear permit. The certain result is decayed, or non existent capability. It may be more feasible to resurrect the Southern Confederacy than the US nuclear energy industry. What rational parent would support their kid’s PhD program in the study of Yucca Mountain geological processes? Advanced robotic coal handling techniques? Dam engineering?
From my sources, the professors are now all dead. If we build, it is a certainty that every one, from the lowest drafters to Chief Engineer, to the CEO, will have no prior experience in perhaps the most complex technology known to man. No society has ever resurrected an abandoned complex technology.
If Obama evaporated, I do not know who to vote for. America is in trouble; our money will become worthless, our grid may collapse, our children will have no future. We face an unclear decision.
Errata: Strike fusion, insert fission. I can not type and answer the phone.
Erratum:
Erratum is singular, errata plural. Couldn’t resist.
Centurion: What’s this, then? “Romanes eunt domus”? People called Romans, they go, the house?
Brian: It says, “Romans go home. ”
Centurion: No it doesn’t ! What’s the latin for “Roman”? Come on, come on !
Brian: Er, “Romanus” !
Centurion: Vocative plural of “Romanus” is?
Brian: Er, er, “Romani” !
Centurion: [Writes "Romani" over Brian's graffiti] “Eunt”? What is “eunt”? Conjugate the verb, “to go” !
Brian: Er, “Ire”. Er, “eo”, “is”, “it”, “imus”, “itis”, “eunt”.
Centurion: So, “eunt” is…?
Brian: Third person plural present indicative, “they go”……
Heh. I couldn’t resist either, Art. :)
Hey, two years in high school almost fifty years ago, not much survives other than the little legal Latin I had to deal with at work. I did hang on to enough of the more or less proper pronunciation to have fun with correcting lawyers and the hash they make of legal Latin trying to show off.
Conjugation of Latin irregular verbs! The latest fad. Now available from the reader commentariat here at PJM! Come, get your fill! Do not pass up this great, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity! :D
My GOD I wish you were not DEAD ON CORRECT!!! WE ARE TOTALLY SCREWED!!! WE HAVE WITH OBAMA A TRUE “INEPTOCRACY”….A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT WHERE THE LEAST LIKELY TO LEAD ARE ELECTED BY THE LEAST CAPABLE OF PRODUCING, AND THOSE LEAST LIKELY TO SUSTAIN THEMSELVES OR SUCCEED ARE REWARDED WITH GOODS AND SERVICES PAID FOR BY THE CONFISCATED WEALTH OF A DIMINISHING NUMBER OF PRODUCERS.
I’d like to see a public service announcement articulating the exact scenario you describe….Reminds me of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy…a civilization collapsed when there was no expertise to repair the machines…And centuries passed before it arose again(it’s been 40 years since I read it so I’m a little rusty on details)
It seems that the sum of all of these comments here is that we simply must get ourselves organized to defeat Obama in this next election.
It’s reached the point that the Republican convention and caucuses should set aside each candidate’s work-a-day differences on their personal aims “if elected”….. and fully concentrate the consolidated collective efforts of Republicans on the man who has the best chances of defeating our chameleon-president.
I say this because I doubt (sad to say) the wisdom (this time) of American voters to choose sensibly to send Obama and company packing.
In another era, I’d favor voting rights be limited to property-owners over the age of thirty…..”property” of course to include proprietors of small-to-large businesses along with farmers and harvesters of renewable tree-farms.
Is this anacronistic thinking? Perhaps…..but give it some thought….. and examine the dangerous “product” of the voters behind Obama as your researchers’ “control group”.
We’ve apparently come far too close to “Democracy” meaning mob-voting.
You ask why Obama’s positions are so illogical and een self-contradictory. Most pols give this answer. “The people are stupid and the press is more stupid”.
Obama and his general staff believe the people are stupid and that the press is composed of useful idiots who become stupified by His Voice.
They ask “Why waste the effort to create a reasoned argument?” They never needed logic in the past.
The euphoria of the Dow closing at a high since 2008 ignores some simple calculations.
First, the increase with “wealth” is useful only when converted from securities to cash, so to buy something needed for life. This peak may not continue, especially based on the durable goods buying plunge.
Second, let’s say you were on the verge of buying some oil in 08, say 1000 barrels. The market commenced to crash, you held off. Now you have the same “value” again, and need that oil. “You can’t have 1000 barrels for that money anymore,” says your pal Achmed. “But I am just as rich as I was then?” “You can have, oh, we’re pals…for you, a deal: 650 barrels.”
The dollar has depreciated in real terms. Inflation is real and rippled through every commodity there is to sustain life. You might have the dollars you had in 08, but you are 35% or more behind where you were than when it comes to life.
The poor and those on the margin, whom Obama claims to be most concerned of, they pay the most in the reduction of life.
Inflation and taxation are Lenin’s millstones to grind people into subjugation. There are other ways, too, and Obama is grasping for all of them. Meanwhile, useful idiots in the media blather about birth control.
“Inflation and taxation are Lenin’s millstones to grind people into subjugation.”
Withholding of food was always a good one. Kulaks can attest to that.
A Polish friend of mine told me the whole Solidarność movement in 1981 was more due to rising prices and none in wages was actually the catalyst of it all. The demand for more freedom was tacked on at the end by intellectuals To break the momentum the state pulled the same leftist shtick.. martial law, no food shipments in certain areas, shootings, etc…
According to rough accounting, it takes about $600 billion in extra federal spending to generate $1 billion in contributions to the Obama campaign. Nice work if you can get it.
Obama’s history, although mostly either clouded or locked up(which should have been our FIRST WARNING!) was somewhat exposed through his idiotic books and tapes from prior “speeches”, and certainly enough to warn folks that a TRUE COMMUNIST/ALINSKYITE/MARXIST, and true AMERICA/WHITEY HATER is about to enter the scene….that is, warning folks who have an interest in really WHO/WHAT the man is! HOWEVER, it was all HIJACKED/HIDDEN FROM VIEW/COVERED-UP/LIED ABOUT by HOLLYWOOD PERVERTS AND THE LEFTSTREAM MEDIA, who said “WE NEED TO GET RID OF OUR RACIST GUILT(who?! hollywood or the media?!) AND ELECT A BLACK MAN SO EVERYONE WILL “”"”"FEEL”"”" BETTER”. BABY COBRAS ARE CUTE TOO.HOW YA FEEEEEEEEELIN NOW?! UH, BETTER YET, TELL ME WHEN YOU GET YOUR BILL FOR YOUR SHARE OF A $100,000,000,000,000 DEBT BROUGHT TO US BY THE DEMORAT PARTY. DEMORAT MANTRA…”SPEND IT NOW AND LET SOMEBODY ELSE PAY FOR IT LATER”.
“Does Obama realize that even an extra 3 to 4 million barrels a day produced here would earn the U.S. billions in extra revenue and help to stabilize world prices by taking a commensurate amount of American demand off the world market?”
No.
He only cares about his far left base who don’t want to drill anywhere. These people want to convert this country in some wierd ecological theme park, where wer’re reduced to eating roots and get all of power from windmills. Even the Dutch have progressed beyond windmills! But no, these people want all 300 million of us to live in a commune reduced to having nothing. Stalin would have loved these idiots.
“Hope and change” ehh…
That’s what you folks voted for.
Here in Toronto we pay today $1.34 per litre …so around $5.50 or so per gallon…give or take some pennys daily.
With our March break coming next week we can expect close to 6 bucks per gallon.
So hard for me to be sympathetic.
If you go west to B.C. or east to Quebec it’s closer to $7-8 bicks per gallon.
And apparently we have “some oil” in the west…lol
Your rich special interest folks along with our special interest idiots are doing all they can up here to make sure no one can use this oil too soon….
Your higher prices are based on higher taxation, as are the high prices in most of the Commonwealth and Europe.
I don’t agree with your assessment. You make it sound as if the current Administration alone is responsible for rising gasoline prices. They might be at fault for many things, but not this. There’s enough blame to go around. Almost 40 years have elapsed since the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, and more than 30 years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. No Administration, Republican or Democrat, has developed a national energy plan to make the U.S. energy independent. The chief question that ought to be raised is why this is so.
For further clarification, you can refer to my article:
http://perryjgreenbaum.blogspot.com/2012/03/achieving-energy-independence.html
Sincerely,
Perry J Greenbaum
Simple: because the envirowhacko wing of the Communist, er, excuse me, Democrat Party has blocked every attempt to have a rational US energy policy, preferring their crony capitalist schemes to spread money to Democrat fronts posing as alternative energy companies.
Dear Art Chance:
This is hard to understand, given that in the 1994(Newt Gingrich, House Speaker) 1996, 1998, and 2000 elections, the Republicans had a majority in the U.S. Congress. I suspect the answer is far more complicated and has little to do with who controls Congress.
And the Democrats had Comrade Clinton in the White House who vetoed anything the Watermelons didn’t like, e.g., the Congress authorized ANWR development and Comrade Clinton vetoed it.
The fundamental error in the article, and Sec DoE Chu’s word, is that it all sits on a myth. Energy is complex, and it is easy to get lost in the weeds. The acid test to Dr. Chu, and others, is a simple directive. Very smart people have worked on what you have said for decades. Now built a real facility that makes money (is competitive) or forfeit your net worth to Americans, give back what you took from them. Built it in 1-4 years, for $X, or go bankrupt. Put your own skin in the game. This is called discipline, market discipline.
That is the real world, where many “good” ideas never work. He, and others, have never lived in the real world. This is the error.
To base national energy policy on unproven technologies is suicidal. This is our current policy, throw money at losers.
Btw, my background is mechanical engineering. So, what’s the solution?
When the DoE was run by engineers, a basic policy existed (I led a DoE Round One project to build a real advanced power plant in the 1980s.) There are a zillion ideas to make energy. It is easy to make, very difficult to make cheaply. Review teams review the Bunsen burner lab results, select a few promising technologies and build a pilot plant, perhaps the size of a house, with some nascent start up industry, e.g. Microsoft Power. Some pilot plants work, poorly, but new facts are learned.
From these, perhaps a dozen are selected to build demonstration plants, a full scale power plant (or other facility). There are a thousand variables, but all are set constant except one vital parameter. It produces partially subsidized product, e.g. electricity (typically with backstopped $ down sides) for two years. Process, staffing talent, choke points all reveal unexpected results. Typically, hoped for parameters,e.g. availability, power levels are worse than expected, but insight is gained. That is DoE money well spent. But then the apron strings are cut; private investors take over the plant.
In one case I knew, the plant was abandoned within the hour the government money stopped. Insiders got to build, then walked away from the dog. It is vital that the projects be killed off, no more dough. Currently DoE management is filled with people who funnel subsidizes to their wives, buddies, ex and future partners. But no good results. DoE’s basic job is hydrogen bombs. Good people, smart people, but they live in a different world.
Every attempt by conservatives to develope U.S. energy reserves was met by liberals (read Democrats) with; “It will take 10 years to get to full production!!! That isn’t going to help us now!!!” Democrats fought the effort at every turn. Obama’s a Democrat . . . IT IS HIS FAULT!!!!
Obviously, many who comment here share something of my background as somehow affiliated with the oil industry (20 years).
I continue to be amazed that to the best of my knowledge, even in the oil patch, I see little in the way of expanding a cheaper and abundant “alternative” energy to the masses that wouldn’t require groveling and genuflecting to OPEC?
Why in the world aren’t we taking better advantage of natural gas? Are we going to have to revert back to horse and buggy before we pull our heads out of the sand?
Stagflation, 1970s Style
http://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/08/1970-stagflation.asp#axzz1oN5GvvDD
What fools we were for removing the algae from our fish tank and not funneling them into our gas tank.
In case no one noticed, the Obama energy idea is to reduce the total energy available for supporting the free enterprise system and the nation he despises.
Sep 8, 2008 During an interview on This Week with George Stephanopoulos, Barack Obama acknowledges that tax hikes hurt the economy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7fSZiZG91o&feature=related
With a combination of Obama’s EPA regulations, closing almost all of the oil around our ocean from coast to coast, the instability in Iran, & the weak Dollar all make for inflation & high gas prices. I expect the gas prices to keep surging while Obama meekly points his fingers at Bush, Republicans, Wall Street, & ATM machines. All of it makes Obama impotent & immature.
Obama wants high energy & gas prices, but not for the 2012 elections.
Environmentalist Private Property Rights War
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmcfECTJgQc&feature=player_embedded
Bernie Sanders was on TV today talking about a Commodity Futures Commission report that fingers Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and other Wall Street firms for driving up the price of gas in 2008. http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=e802998a-8ee2-4808-9649-0d9730b75ea4
The increase in the gas price of course was one of the straws that broke the camel’s back and started the economic crisis that elected Obama. October surprise, perhaps? Wouldn’t put it past Goldman Sachs.
Just what I was thinking.
While the media yammers about Iran, and blames Israel, the Left is preparing a deliberate Financial strike like the Meltdown.
In a nutshell, Obama knows very well what he is doing, and he’ll tell any lie that he can dream up to get it done.
Meanwhile, he helpfully lies, er, advises that if only everyone would eat their peas, everything will be OK. Priorities, you know.
Barack Obama: The man of a Thousand Excuses.
Obama has said quite clearly that there is nothing he can do about high gas prices, and that even if he could do something, he wouldn’t lift a finger to do it.
I think the American voter will hold him to account for this come November and Obama will not like the outcome!
Will we eventually have to “drill baby drill” and abandon our cities further and keep widening and building new roads that need lots of maintenance, tax dollars and oil ?
The disinvestment in our great American cities makes no sense at all. Why abandon what it took generations to build ?
Will we ever return to building efficient dense urban forms with transit & walkability as in the days past ? Why are we subsidizing with our spare taxes miles and miles of roads that go nowhere but out into the boonies, destroy the environment and force us into automobiles for long periods of time and increase our dependence on foreign oil ?
Let’s get back to building great cities and towns with fantastic parks, piazzas and beautiful architecture that will last long past the length of the bank loan — unlike the junk architecture and wasteful suburban development patterns of current times.
Come on Victor – What do you figure civilization is or have you thrown in with the pagan country dwellers connected to “civilization” through the ether ?
Get real man.
What are you talking about?
Cities are the tech of the past. They should be abandoned, as they are fragile, high-value targets.
But, then, cities are the collectivist’s wet dreams, aren’t they? That fragility makes it so easy to control the people — cut off their food, their water. So easy when none of them have the room to grow a flower bed, let alone a garden.
Good news for you, Mr. Hanson. Republicans are set to offer a Dukakis-Kerry candidate to run against an increasingly popular incumbent, so you’ll have President Obama to be the object of your wrath and consequent screeds for another four years.
It is becoming more evident each day that Obama and his minions are contemptuous and disdainful of most Americans, and think that they can get away with obvious lies and pandering with impunity. Witness the spectacle of taking credit for increased oil production in the US, which Obama has actually been fighting againsts from day 1, and which is entirely attributable to George W decisions and policies. Witness his holding a presser on the Republican super Tuesday. Witness his blatant pandering for women’s votes by so obviously trying to twist a freedom of religion issue, namely Obama unconstitutionally forcing religious institutions to violate their tenets, into a contraception issue. No one is fooled by all these cynical machinations. The American people are not as stupid as Obama thinks. These are unworthy tactics, and they will not work. November 6 will settle the issue.
The media has the technique down pat; They know which buttons to push to get the petulant Obama to respond, which “creates” news for them to print. What else do you expect from a professional Community Organizer?
And if I heard correctly yesterday, Rush Limbaugh did not advertise his own tea!
How about that for an apologetic performance?
Gas prices? A $16 trillion national debt?
For the last week or two, the national discourse has concentrated on a bad decision by Rush Limbaugh and the desire of a thirty-year old professional student to have someone else pay for her birth control.
In other words, everyone who wishes to see 0bama defeated in November needs to stop talking about social issues yesterday, and focus on the disastrous economic policies of the last three years.
If the political discussion revolves around high gas prices, Solyndra, the Chevy Volt, the failed “stimulus bill”, and a host of other failed 0bama policies, we win. If we keep talking about social issues, thereby allowing the MSM to continue their narrative about a made-up GOP “war on women”, the left wins.
Captain Mitt, you are going to need a bigger PAC… If you want to be the standard bearer against Obama, you need to get meaner and tougher for the fight.
When reading this,
Americans must borrow even more billions to import ever-higher priced oil that enriches many of our enemies, all of which will be pumped abroad under far more lax environmental conditions than had we developed our own resources here at home.
I wondered how much of the following is being mentioned/noticed,
Asia-produced ozone making its way to U.S., study finds
Maybe those suggestions that the current administration is out to wreck America’s economy and security holds some water?
It seems that the sum of all of these comments here is that we simply must get ourselves organized to defeat Obama in this next election.
Wow, that was a lot of reading, but very enjoyable. It was nice to read through all of those posts and not have to read one Liberal Lunes rantings. Thanks folks! I would like to encourage all of you to keep your spirits up and to slam every liberal post you run across. Have faith!!!! We will be the ones standing when the dust settles!
The anti-American quality of Obama’s policies is seen in his willingness to assist in the process of price gouging as America becomes a net exporter of oil distillates and coal because average Americans can no longer afford the world prices available on an open free market. By Mr. Obama’s reasoning, it is better for others to burn our energy resources than for us to do so.
Great article and lively discussion.
It looks like Israel could be our savior if they attack Iran. This will force Obambi’s hand and cause some serious consternation in our government.
Obambi won’t know who to side with, and he can be counted on to make some spontaneous and stupid decisions, which will make the situation worse.
All this will display the petulant, juvenile, large ego, small minded, thin skinned Democrat pimp really is incompetent.
But, as #3. Charlie Griffith noted; These personality traits are desired in a D.C. mayor.
High gas prices are clearly a result of the GOP war against women!
Isn’t this a New York Times headline?
Well, as a conservative, I’ll post a “radical” idea… maybe Obama should get a second term. This would be along the lines of giving him enough rope so he hangs himself… here are some facts that give me some hope about such a scenario…
- some kind of breakdown is inevitable within a few short years. If so, it needs to happen on Obozo’s watch. Any conservative who might win in November would be blamed, when the blame is due Obama and his party that started all this nonsense back in the 60s.
- even if no breakdown happens anytime soon, Obama and his merry band of Bolsheviks will regard a second term as a blank check and free license to do literally anything they want, and to Hell with the Constitution. Any “over-reaching” they have done so far will be nothing compared to the fever-swamp liberal power-trip fantasies they will unleash in a second term. This could be good, because…
- the current US population is 300 million. Subtract out the minors and that leaves about 250 million legal adult citizens. Here’s the demographic breakdown based on census data and legitimate polls and surveys done over the last quarter century by all the recognized polling organizations:
20% (1/5, or 50 million) liberal
38% (2-/5, or 95 million) moderate/uncommitted/variable
42$ (2+/5, or 105 million) conservative
>> number of legal private gun-owners in US: 90 million<<
…so there are more than twice as many conservatives than liberals in this country, and there are almost twice as many gun owners than liberals.
- what do liberals do when they decide to have an "up-rising"? They get stoned and drunk and riot in the urban cores, where **they are surrounded mostly by residents who are liberal (non-gun-owners), **in areas controlled by liberal mayors and city councils who allow the mayhem and tie the hands of police, and do so **under the protective eyes of hyper-liberal local and national media.
- given what we have seen of the "occupiers" and liberal pop culture in general, it is safe to say that the rank-and-file liberals blabbing about a revolution and "social/environmental/whatever justice" are not the kind of effective people who will actguallhy get organized, pick up weapons they loath and don't know how to use, then march out of their comfortable hard-left urban cores into Real America. They are too lazy, too stoned, too disorganized, and are constantly whining for SOMEONE ELSE (Mommy and Daddy Obama) to do the dirty work of stealing from others to take care of them. These people are never going to march out into Real America and face the 90 million gun owners armed and ready to defend their families, homes, communities, and livelihoods. SO…
- let Obama have a second term and self destruct. We just need to take bigger margins in both houses of Congress, start impeaching all the liberal judges on the federal bench, defund the out-of-control buracracies (and laugh when the libtards burn down their own neighborhoods), take and hold more state legislatures and governorships (and laugh when Kalifornia, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York implode into bankruptcy).
-states can start managing their own lands, and open them up for oil and gas development. Does anyone think Obama will actually order the US military to shoot American oil workers on American soil? Does anyone think the military (who despise Obama) will actually do that? The only people who will show up in the new oil fields will be frange radical extremeists and the usual screaming/chanting dumb college kids with their cups of Starbucks. Such people can be easily dealt with, should normal Americans decide to do so.
So, do I WANT Obama to have a second term? Not really… but neither do I think it would be the end of the world. WE OUTNUMBER THEM… WE ARE ARMED AND WILLING TO ACTUALLY FIGHT FOR THINGS GREATER THAN OURSELVES, THEY ARE NOT… and ultimately, THE DAMAGE THEY DO CAN EASILY BE ERASED once they destroy/discredit themselves.
Hang in there. folks. Stock up on ammo and food and wait for the wild ride!
Except it won’t work that way; the Left has been dreaming about helter-skelter since the ’60s. You’re right that the typical useful idiot lefty is not threat to anyone but himself. Since we know that, what makes you think the hardcore, thoughtful lefties in the leadership cadre don’t know it? This Country is poised on a race war anytime the federal government wants to provoke it. Just let those EBTs not recharge on the right day, and not only will the cities burn, but there’ll be a need to get some of those nice rides and plasma TVs out in the ‘burbs to feed the starving children. As you say, those ‘burbs are well armed and also tend to have their own cops, not a part of the city corrupt Democrat structure, and neither the cops nor the citizens will take the situation by disappearing the way city cops do. There will be violence, there will be bloodshed, and there will be calls from Democrat mayors and governors for federal resources, and there you have military intervention to “restore control” and establish martial law, and if you’re an armed white family, you’re an immediate suspect, the courts are not in session due to the insurrection, and you’re subject to drumhead military “justice.” And you know, we obligingly set all this up with Homeland Security paranoia under GWB. The one rule of government that Republicans never seem to learn used to be on a placard above my desk: “Remember, when the enemy is in range, so are you.” Republicans just can’t bring themselves to think about what the other guys might do with these neat new government powers and agencies they think up.
Chip;
Although I like your scenario very much, Obambi and his merry band of misfits and miscreants are already threatening the food and weapons supply.
I’ll be glad to help you rethink this scenario, but, this means life and/or death to us and our loved ones. So, this exercise isn’t performed in the public venue.
Obama is the one man dream team the Democrat/Progressive/Communist Party has been lusting for, for the last 60 years.
You don’t really know the plundering and destruction they can amass in a very short time. Many novels have been written about their agenda. It won’t be pretty.
I can’t believe that a second Obama term would cause a permanent ideological shift to the right because too many voters are so very ignorant, stupid, dissolute, and otherwise incapable of performing their civic duties in a manner beneficial to their country. Suchlike will continue to vote for Democrats no matter how much damage they do to America. I am kin to some of these people. They can’t be convinced by argument that voting for Democrats is voting for America’s demise. And when the demise seriously gets going, they’ll blame it on everyone and everything except government and Democrats.
I don’t think America can survive much longer as it’s currently configured. What’s more, I don’t think that a reconfiguration is possible until some cataclysmic event and subsequent chaos makes reconfiguration more attractive than the status quo. So stocking up on munitions and survival gear seems a good idea to me, but I expect I’ll need them to defend against predators of all stripes, not just lefties.
Sec. Chu has said that he wants Americans to pay for gasoline what Europeans pay. In fact, Americans do pay what Europeans pay for gas – the price of oil bought on the world market is the same for everyone. The difference in the price at the pump is taxes. In other words, the Europeans are paying an artificially inflated price for motor fuels.
Unless the states and federal government adopt an energy tax plan like Europe’s, Europeans will always pay more for energy, and especially for gasoline. So, will Secretary Chu come clean and say that he favors a massive increase in the federal tax on motor fuels?
WL;
Are you aware that you just ruined the wet dream of the Liberals? They didn’t know that we paid the same as Europe for oil.
But, the Obambi Law of Nature states that high/exorbitant oil prices demand “clean/green energy” PRODUCTION!
Any day now, there will be a dictate from the White House commanding everyone start using kinetic energy to power their air conditioning systems.
Yep! That’ll work just like all his other executive orders.
I enjoy reading the comments as much as I enjoy reading the articles on this site. Taken as a whole, the readers of Pajamas Media are some of the most well informed out there, in my opinion anyway.
You, sir, are the rare element we need. Can you disable politicians?
GDI–”The solution? Jerry-rig the numbers and ignore the volatile items. That’s our government at work.”
Larry J–”Artificially measuring inflation saves them money.”
Just a d*mn minute?
We are paying them to lie to us?
Aren’t they supposed to be there to prevent or punish false testimony?
Is it ok if judges just start lying or making stuff up in court?
Then what else will it be ok for them to do?
Excellent questions. IMO the answers are:
- Paying them to lie: Yep
- Prevent/punish false testimony: Yep
- Judges might lie: Yep
- What else might they do: Boggles the mind, doesn’t it?
Welcome to America, fundamentally transformed …
alzaebo;
“We are paying them to lie to us?”
That should be a statement rather than a question. They’ve been doing it for decades now.
It’s only more blatant and obvious this time around.
Obama’s Gas
The president of the United States is currently engaged in perpetrating the biggest fraud since the invention of the anthropogenic global warming scam.
In his weekly Saturday chat with the American people, Barack Hussein Obama vowed, “I am going to keep doing everything I can to help you save money on gas, both right now and in the future.”
He added, “We can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices–not when we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil,” as if drilling for more oil wouldn’t result in more oil and lower prices at the pump. At the same time, he was effectively accusing Americans of causing high prices by indiscriminate consumption, like driving to work and heating their homes.
Obama has an odd way of implementing his resolve to help us “save money.”
Even before he assumed office, his energy secretary Steven Chu let the cat out of the gas bag when he indicated he wanted to raise gasoline prices to European levels of $10. a gallon. Mr. Chu is now calling the gas shots in Washington, putting the lie to the president’s phony concerns.
The Obama administration has also crippled off-shore oil exploration, rejected the Keystone XL pipeline project, repeatedly refused permission for companies to pump black gold in the Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge, and stalled efforts at hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” to recover petroleum.
Most recently, the president said we should invest in “energy sources of the future” and phase out oil, the energy source of “the past,” which happens to be the only reliable source we have.
As for developing our most abundant energy resource, coal, the president said during the last campaign that he wanted to put the coal industry out of business since he has better ideas.
His ideas? Windmills dependent on breezes that don’t always blow. Solar power which isn’t very effective at night or during cloudy days. Hydroelectic energy which requires waterfalls. And automobiles like the Chevy Volt which have the unfortunate tendency to catch fire at the most inopportune moments.
The administration rationale for all that baloney? Preserving our pristine waters, saving the caribou and the environment in ANWR, keeping our drinking water potable throughout the land, using pond scum to alchemistically create fuel, and forcing Americans to buy matchbox cars.
And, always in the forefront of Obama’s thinking is the passage of cap and trade legislation. The Wall Street Journal has aptly called the cap and trade charade “the tax that dare not speak its name.” Voters will eventually find out that the impact of carbon credits on their wallets will dwarf ten dollar gas, but it will be too late to do anything about it.
At the heart of all that hooey is Obama’s feigned and misplaced terror of global warming, a fear eerily similar to the panic of almost forty years ago over global cooling and the looming New Ice Age. . .
The president’s vow to restrain gasoline prices has as much validity as his claim the economy is improving. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=16868.)
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